The Option
by Scott Washburn
Summary: Parker Selfridge isn't ready to give up even after he's kicked off Pandora. But Captain Kim may be the one to pay the price for his ambition!


The Option

By Scott Washburn

NOTE: This story fits into my "Aftermath" series: .net/s/5792082/1/Aftermath

It would be chapter 1 ½ fitting in between Chapter 1 "The Reckoning" and Chapter 2 "The Decision". While this can be enjoyed on its own, I'd advise that you read Chapter 1 of "Aftermath" first .

Parker Selfridge pulled himself through the airlock into the central core of the space station. His stomach heaved uneasily and he swallowed the saliva that was pouring into his mouth. He'd forgotten how much he hated zero-g. There was a long line of people, fellow refugees, that were waiting for the elevators to take them down to the rotating ring that provided simulated gravity. He ruthlessly pulled rank to go to the front of the line and took the next car down. The other dozen people in the elevator frowned at him, but said nothing. In a few moments he was breathing easier as his innards settled back where they belonged.

When the car door slid open he was the first out. He had intended to make a beeline for the main control room, but to his irritation, the corridors were filled with the refugees from the earlier shuttle loads up from the surface. The space station had been constructed from the ship which had brought the first manned mission to Alpha Centauri A many years earlier. It was intended to act as a base of operations until a more permanent facility could be constructed on the surface. Once that had been done, the station's primary function had become a trans-shipment point for equipment going down and unobtainium coming up and personnel going in both directions. The station had been enlarged and modernized from time to time, but it was in no way designed to handle the influx of people that was happening now.

Muttering under his breath he worked his way past people, around stretchers, and over bundles of possessions piled in the corridor. Conversations seemed to die away as he approached and then spring up again as he passed. Everyone knew him by sight, of course: as the RDA administrator he was everyone's boss.

Or had been.

He wasn't sure of his exact status right now. During the crisis, Fred Lomax, the RDA's secret security agent, had relieved him of command, but then Lomax had been relieved in turn by Captain Harriet Kim. Selfridge didn't know who was in charge now, legally, but he was determined to try and regain control if he could. As long as it was still a military situation down on Pandora he'd been willing to let Kim call the shots. But now, now they weren't on Pandora and it wasn't a military situation anymore.

He finally reached the main control room and went inside. He was met immediately by the station commander, Todd Adams. "Parker," he said, offering his hand, "I won't say I'm glad to see you again considering the circumstances, but I'm glad you got out of there in one piece."

"Still got my scalp, too. What's the situation up here?" He glanced around the control room. A small crowd of technicians were working at their stations. Captain Kim and several of her officers there; she had come up on the same shuttle as him, how had she beaten him here? He flinched when he spotted Fred Lomax. Kim had kept him in detention on Pandora while the evacuation was being organized and carried out, but he didn't suppose that the space station even had a detention cell. The expression on Lomax's face was unreadable.

"We have the last of your people aboard," replied Adams. "As I'm sure you noticed, we're a tad crowded right now. We are putting all the injured people into cryo aboard the _Venture Star_ and once they are done, we can start getting the rest of you on ice, too."

"Go ahead with the injured, but hold off on anyone else for the moment."

"What? But Captain Kim's orders were to…"

"She's not in charge up here, Todd. I am."

Adams looked around uneasily. "Well… But in any case, we have to do something soon! The station's life support and recyclers cannot handle a load like this for long, Parker!"

"I know. But first, tell me: did the rebels' message get sent or were you able to fool them?"

Adams shrugged and shook his head. "I tried, but that Max Patel is just too damn good with the computers. He found all three of the tricks we'd hidden in the transmitter software within twenty minutes of getting here. I'm sorry, but the message is on its way and there's no stopping it now."

"Damn. Couldn't you have just cut a few wires or something?" The traitor, Jake Sully, had insisted on being allowed to send a message to Earth with 'their side of the story'. Selfridge didn't know what was in it, but he had hoped to prevent it from being sent.

"With them holding you hostage down there?" asked Adams incredulously. "They made it quite clear that the last shuttle wasn't going to be allowed to lift until they were satisfied!"

"All right, all right, well, what's done is done. I'll be having a few messages of my own to send off shortly. But for the time being the communications blackout remains in place. No unauthorized transmissions of any sort, understand?"

"Right."

Captain Kim had caught sight of him by now and made her way over to him, followed by her other officers and Lomax. "Mr. Selfridge," she said, "I'm prepared to declare the military state of emergency at an end. That puts you back in charge, sir." Selfridge blinked in surprise. He had been mustering himself to challenge Kim for command, and here she just hands it to him! But apparently Lomax didn't agree…

"You have no authority to do that, Captain!" he declared angrily. "And you had no authority to relieve me in the first place! By Director Suvarov's orders, I am still in command here!" He stared daggers at the woman and at her officers, who returned the venom in full. They were clearly siding with their captain and Lomax knew it.

"I'm afraid you're wrong," said Kim. "I looked over those orders of yours very carefully, Mr. Lomax. They say, very precisely I might add, that your authority extended only to RDA operations and personnel on Pandora, itself. As of this moment, there are no RDA operations or personnel on Pandora. You have authority over nothing at all. Mr. Selfridge, on the other hand, has always been the chief administrator for all RDA operations throughout the Alpha Centauri A system and that authority he retains." She looked straight at him. "Do you have any orders, sir?"

"You'll regret this!" snarled Lomax. "All of you! When we get back to Earth I'll…"

"Captain Kim," said Selfridge. "My first order is that Mr. Lomax be put into cryo for his trip home. Immediately."

"It'll be my pleasure, sir!"

[Scene Break]

Captain Harriet Kim made her way through the boarding tube from _Venture Star_ and back onto the station. A feeling of grim satisfaction coursed through her. Lomax was on ice and wouldn't be bothering them until they got back to Earth. Her mind shied away from the trouble he _could_ cause once they were home. But hell, the careers of anyone even remotely tied to this fiasco were so completely screwed already that anything Lomax did would just be icing on the cake.

"All officers, please report to the command center." The intercom speaker was right behind her head and she jumped slightly. She clicked her own communicator on and acknowledged and continued moving: she'd been headed there anyway. When she got there, she saw that almost all the technicians had been sent out and the room was filled with nearly all the remaining staff from Pandora, plus a few of Todd Adams' people. Selfridge was in the center of it.

"Okay, I think we're all here," he said. "Sorry about the facilities, but I'm told the station conference room is being used as an annex for the infirmary. We'll just have to make do. In fact, we are all going to have to get used to making do for quite a while." He paused and passed his eyes over everyone present. "I imagine that most of you are assuming that you'll be heading back to Earth pretty soon. Well, you can forget about that! We're staying."

There were uneasy murmurs throughout the compartment and Kim choked of an exclamation of surprise. "Staying, sir?" she said. "To what purpose?"

"To reestablish our base on Pandora."

Kim's eyes grew wide. "Sir, you can't be serious. The Hell's Gate base is in enemy hands. We had to leave nearly all our weapons behind and you saw the huge horde of Na'vi that had assembled! We can't possibly…"

"I'm well aware that we do not have the resources to recapture Hell's Gate, Captain," said Selfridge. "At least not right now. Probably not for many years to come."

"Then what…?"

"Pandora's a big planet. A very big planet. Our surveys have indicated that there are regions where few, if any, Na'vi live. If we can find a suitable location, far away from Hell's Gate, then with luck, the Na'vi won't even know we are there." Selfridge turned to one of his managers. "George, you're our geologist, I want you to start work on finding a good spot. Isolated, defensible, and with at least a halfway decent unobtainium deposit."

The man gave a smile and spread his hands. "Okay, Parker. Whatever you say."

"Once the location is selected, we need to set up living quarters for the workers. If I'm not mistaken, we have a lot of pre-fab units that were intended for Site 2 waiting up here right now. Isn't that right, Jackie?"

A woman nodded. "Yes, we were planning to land them directly from orbit once the site was cleared. But they're only the bare bones of a base, Parker. Living quarters, mess hall, plus the life support units, but that's about all. Everything else we were going to be still getting from Hell's Gate. Without that, it's going to be pretty primitive."

Selfridge nodded. The original plan was to set up a maglev rail line between Hell's Gate and Site 2. That was what the huge swath through the forest was for. Once in place the ore could be shipped back to the refinery and personnel could easily move back and forth with the bulk of the support facilities still being at Hell's Gate. "Our people will just have to rotate up here for R&R until we can get what we need to expand the base," replied Selfridge. "Now we come to the big item: the mining equipment. How do we stand on that, Ronnie?"

Ronnie Holmes blew out his breath and shook his head. "You've caught me flat-footed, Chief. We've got the parts for one of the big excavators up here plus some other stuff, but no trucks or earthmovers. All that is still sitting at Site 2. I'm not sure we have enough for a viable operation. I'll have to check."

"Do that. I'll want a report no later than tomorrow. And include what's coming on the next few ISVs. If worse comes to worse we can just get the site prepared now and go into operation when the next ship arrives."

"Okay," said Holmes, "but you know there's no refinery coming on any of the inbound ships, Chief. You planning on shipping unrefined ore back to Earth?"

"If that's what we have to do, then yes! It will be far better than nothing." He paused and took a deep breath. "Look, people, we have a job to do here. And it is not just making money for the RDA. A cut-off in unobtainium deliveries could have a catastrophic effect on large sections of Earth's economy. You know what things are like back home: we're barely hanging on by our fingernails after all that's happened. Something like this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. If we can manage to get even a small-scale operation going and let people know that the unobtainium will keep flowing it could make a huge difference. We have a responsibility to at least try! Options, people! Give me the most options you can!"

In spite of herself Kim was impressed. Selfridge usually came across as an easy-going, wise-cracking, smart-ass bureaucrat, but she could see now that it was at least partly just a façade. He would not have been given an important posting like this if there wasn't some real talent and drive behind the façade. He might have seemed like a pansy during the crisis, but then he wasn't a soldier. Why should she have expected him to act like one? On the other hand, all this talk about saving Earth was at least partially a smokescreen, too: Selfridge was probably trying to salvage his career more than anything else.

"In any case," continued Selfridge, "I'll remind you—and you should remind your own people if they start belly-aching—that we are all still under contract. Nothing that's happened changes that. Anyone who refuses to carry on, anyone who insists on going home, will forfeit their entire salary. Understood?"

Kim suppressed a smile. Ah, there was the old Selfridge showing through! Her urge to smile faded. "Uh, sir? I need to remind you that even if we find a spot with no Na'vi present, the Pandoran wildlife will still represent a significant threat—even if it's not being deliberately directed against us. My security forces have been virtually disarmed and, I'm forced to admit, pretty badly demoralized. Protecting this new base might not be possible."

Selfridge nodded. "I'm aware of the problems, Captain." He turned back to the geologist. "George, add to your list of criteria for finding a site that it be as desolate as possible. No jungles, no grasslands, a desert would be nice."

"Okay. That will narrow it down a bit."

"Parker?" Todd Adams, the station commander waved his hand slightly. "What about the station life support? It will probably be months before you're ready to start sending people dirtside. We have, at most, a week or two before we begin having serious trouble up here."

"Yes, that's the final point I wanted to cover here today: we have to do some serious sorting of the people who we have here. Anyone not needed for the job of reestablishing the base and resuming mining operations is going to have to be sent back to Earth on the _Venture Star_. Top on the list will be the science department—with the exception of the geologists, of course. Science is a very low priority right now. The bottom line is that we need to cut our numbers by approximately 50%. I want a list of recommendations from each of you by tomorrow noon. The sooner we can start putting people into cryo, the better." He looked around the room. "Any questions? Good, let's get to work."

People started leaving the control room, but Kim gathered her officers in one corner. "Okay, people, it looks like this game isn't over yet," she said. "First, I want a complete inventory of all weapons and equipment that we have left. And I mean everything. I never saw the trooper who didn't have something stashed away in his duffle for emergencies. Even if it's just a pistol or a combat knife, I want it on the list, understand?" Everyone nodded. "Obviously that goes for ammo, too. Lieutenant Asoka, get me that list of what's coming on the next ISV. Anderson, pull up our personnel list and start figuring out who stays and who goes. I'm not sure how many of us Selfridge is going to want to keep, but we can certainly cut way back on all the support crews for the choppers and the AMP suits since we don't have any of those left. People with combat experience should have top priority and I know we have too damn few of those. Questions? Good. Let's get to it."

[Scene Break]

Selfridge watched his department heads seat themselves around the conference table. With the last of the injured placed in cryo, they had the use of the conference room again. George Levall was at the podium calling up some graphics on the main screen. "What have you got for us, George?" he asked.

Levall pointed to a map which showed all of Pandora. "I think I've got something that might work for us, Parker. There's an island here, in the southern hemisphere." The display changed and one small land mass glowed red. "It's about the size of England, but pretty desolate. Not a true desert, but close. No forests like at Hell's Gate except along a couple of river valleys. It's mostly prairie and mountains. Orbital surveys show some herds of grazing animals and we have to assume there will be predators, but no obvious signs of Na'vi settlements. Of course, there could be some in those river valleys I mentioned. We've plotted several modest unobtainium deposits that could be mined here, here and here." The display zoomed in on the island and three areas were highlighted. "Of course, these are just orbital scans, we are going to have to go down there and take a closer look to pinpoint the deposits."

"How far away is this from Hell's Gate?" asked Selfridge.

"About as far as we can manage. eleven thousand kilometers as the banshee flies and a lot of that over open ocean. Almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet."

"Good," said Selfridge. "With any luck the word about our little war will never spread that far even if there are Na'vi on the island. Good job." He turned toward his mining foreman. "Ronnie, I hope you have good news, too."

Ronald Holmes twisted his mouth into an expression that could not readily be defined. "I'm not sure how good it is, Chief. We are seriously short on basic equipment to open up a new mine. I've got my people working around the clock trying to come up with ways to modify what we've got or cobble together things out of spare parts but it is going to be the worst shoe-string of an operation you can imagine."

"But can you do it?"

Ronnie sighed. "I'm pretty sure we can do _something_. But just how much or how good remains to be seen. The lack of dozers or earthmovers is really going to hurt us. If we could just sneak down and snatch a few things from Site 2…"

"Not an option," said Captain Kim. Everyone turned to look at the security force commander. "Aside from the risks of such an operation, there is no way we could conceal what we've done from the Na'vi or the humans down there. Since there's little other use for the gear they would immediately suspect that we were trying to open up a new mine somewhere else on Pandora. They would make every effort to locate it and if they did we would be totally vulnerable to attack. Our only hope for this venture is to keep it a secret. I'm sorry."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Captain Kim, Ronnie," said Selfridge. "See what you can do with what we have. Even a small flow of ore would be better than none at all."

"Okay, Chief, we'll keep working on it. Uh, how long before you expect us to be in operation?"

"Well, that is the next question. As George told us, we are going to need surface surveys to confirm the unobtainium's location and density. We'll then have to consider all the other factors relevant to setting up a base and the mine before we settle on a location. I'm guessing that will take a couple of months. Then we need to land the habitation modules and such. It will probably be three or four months before you can start digging."

"All right," said Holmes looking relived. "That gives us a little breathing space and by then the next ISV will only be six months out and there is a lot of useful equipment coming in on that. There is one thing though, sir."

"What's that?"

"Mining explosives. We are very short on that. We left our entire stock at Hell's Gate and there's none here. Even the next ISV isn't bringing much. Without them it is going to take much longer to get things going."

"Is there anything you can substitute?" asked Selfridge.

"Well, there are a couple of options, but I'm not sure I like them."

"Like what?"

"Well, we could siphon some anti-matter out of the Venture Star's containment vessel…" Holmes couldn't even finish his sentence before a half-dozen voices around the table erupted in protest. "Yeah, yeah, I know," said Holmes once the chorus died down. "I don't like it either. Just too damn dangerous. But it is an option."

"You said 'a couple'," said Selfridge. "What are the others?"

"One other: orbital bombardment. We drop stuff from orbit and the impact blasts out holes for us to dig in. It's never been tried for anything like this and there are considerable risks."

"Such as?"

"Accuracy. For obvious reasons the mine needs to be close to the base and if our aim is off even a fraction, there goes the base."

"Why don't we do it before the base is built?" asked George Levall.

"Yes, that's probably the best option," said Holmes. "Just drop one big one to get things started and then move in and build the base. It wouldn't be as efficient as being able to apply small controlled impacts as needed, but a whole lot safer."

"All right, draw up some plans," said Selfridge. "But the first step is to proceed with the surveys. George, put together a team. Captain Kim, can you provide security for the surveyors?"

"I believe so, sir," replied Kim. "As long as all we are facing is the local wildlife we should be able to handle it. As you know, all we have left are small arms and a few grenades, but that should be enough. Let me know when you need us."

"Good. I think we'll get started in two or three days."

[Scene Break]

The auxiliary shuttle lurched to a halt and the cloud of dust the turbines had thrown up slowly settled. Captain Harriet Kim looked out through the canopy at the expanse of wind-swept prairie that stretched to the horizon. "Okay," she said. "Move out and set up a perimeter. You know the routine." She adjusted her exo-pack and crowded into the small air lock with her troopers. After a moment her ears popped with the increasing pressure and then the outer door swung open and they went down the ladder onto the surface of Pandora.

This place was even hotter than Hell's Gate, though not nearly as humid. Kim wondered if Selfridge's people had given any thought to the issue of fresh drinking water—they were going to need a lot of it. The troops spread out around the shuttle looking alternately with eyes and instruments, but after only a few minutes they gave the all-clear. This was the third time they had done this and it really was becoming routine. There had been no problem at all the first two times and the geologists had gotten the readings they wanted. Hopefully, it would go just as smoothly this time.

"Landing party communications check," she said into her throat mike. "You reading me Suki?"

"Loud and clear, Captain," came Lieutenant Asoka's reply after a few seconds. There were a string of communications satellites in orbit around Pandora. They could pick up even the modest power of the personal communicators anywhere on the planet. Unfortunately, after some debate it was decided that it was too risky to use the system. The computer skills of Dr. Max Patel had been demonstrated all too clearly and there was a significant possibility that the rebels had hacked into it. So, the survey party's communicators had been set at extreme low power that could only carry a few kilometers. The signals were picked up by the shuttle and then rebroadcast by a tight beam (and presumably secure) communications laser back up to the orbital station. They could not afford to let the rebels know they were down here.

"Anything to report?"

"Scans of your area look normal, sir. There is a herd of some large animals about twenty klicks north of your position, moving slowly south-southeast. If they stay on that vector they should pass a few klicks to your east in about three hours."

"All right. Let me know if there's any change. Kim out." She clicked off and then signaled the geologists that they could debark and get to work. They quickly hauled out their gear and started setting it up. She went over to the team leader. "How far out are you going to set your probes?" she asked him.

"Well, we'd like to put them in a ring at least three kilometers in radius. Why?"

Kim frowned. The survey equipment consisted of a central receiver and a number of remote probes. Somehow by bouncing signals off each other they could create an accurate picture of the underground structure, including the unobtainium deposits. She'd watched them do it twice before and the process took hours. "Get your probes to the northeast and east set first. There's a herd of big critters that will pass close to those points in a few hours. I don't want any of you over that way when they do."

"Right. Pablo! Get probes four, five and six planted pronto!" One of the geologists waved and picked up a bundle of gear. Kim sent one of her troopers to escort him.

The animals worried her. After their first and second surveys orbital scans had shown groups of the big grazing animals passing through the areas where they had landed. It might have just been a coincidence, but she couldn't forget the conversation she'd had with Dr. Patel shortly after the disastrous battle in the Flux Vortex. He'd tried to explain Grace Augustine's theories about 'Eywa' and this supposed planetary consciousness. Kim hadn't cared about the science but she was very interested in why the local animals had attacked Colonel Quaritch's force—and more importantly, could it happen again? What Patel had told her was disturbing. He had likened the animal attack to the immune system of a single huge creature. It had treated the human invaders like an infection. Was it still in operation? It didn't seem like it was a completely automatic thing: there had been no further attacks during the negotiations prior to the evacuation of Hell's Gate. Of course, Patel had been merely speculating, he had no proof of anything. Maybe she was worried for nothing. She glanced up at several 'birds' circling far overhead and frowned.

But nothing happened and the first probes were placed without incident. The geologists moved on to place the rest of the ring. It would take most of the day to get them all placed, calibrated and their readings recorded. Kim yawned and went back to the shuttle to get some lunch.

An hour later she was back outside when her communicator pinged. "Captain? Asoka here. Respond please."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

"That herd of animals has changed direction, ma'am. It's headed right toward your position. Range about four klicks and closing."

A chill went through her despite the heat. "You're sure?"

"They had gone right on past like I had said earlier, but five minutes ago they turned and are on a bee-line for the shuttle. I waited long enough to make sure it wasn't just a random change of direction. You better get out of there, Harri."

"Right. Thanks. Attention, landing party! Get back to the shuttle on the double! Flight Officer Xiao, fire it up!" She pulled out her monitor and unfolded it to check on the positions of all the personnel and cursed. Two blips were almost three kilometers away, off to the west. "Corporal Skaloud! Get moving! We have incoming!" Skaloud acknowledged, but then Kim cursed again. The animals were picking up speed! She pulled out her binoculars and was dismayed that she could actually see them. Large gray shapes to the southeast, several dozen at least, kicking up a cloud of dust as they moved. She'd been told that these creatures were kin to the huge hammerheads that inhabited the forests near Hell's Gate. Which meant two things: One, they were big enough to wreck the shuttle if they caught it on the ground and, Two, the weapons she and her troops carried would be about as effective as pea-shooters against them.

The closer members of the team came trotting up and she ordered them aboard. Sergeant Moore waited next to her for Skaloud and the last geologist to arrive. A glance at her monitor and a look at the approaching animals told her they weren't going to make it. "Sergeant, let me have your weapon," she said. Moore just stared at her in confusion so she reached out and took the assault rifle out of his hands. "Get everyone back to the station, Sergeant." She turned and sprinted away. Moore shouted after her, but she didn't look back.

She angled her direction just to the south of the beasts. No point meeting them head on. The distance closed with frightening swiftness. Damn, the things were big! They were loping along in what looked like an easy trot, but their six legs ate up the distance far faster than human legs could match. She was only about five hundred meters from the shuttle when they came abreast of her. They either didn't see her or didn't care, because they kept going.

"Hey! Hey! I'm over here!" she shouted, waving her arms. They ignored her. Okay, if that's what they wanted… She raised the assault rifle and fired a long burst into the air, aiming over the heads of the animals. _That_ got their attention! One of them bellowed loudly and the whole group slowed and then wheeled around to face her. They shuffled around undecidedly and then a few of them started to turn toward the shuttle. She fired another burst. "Hey! Pay attention when I'm shooting at you!" They all turned in her direction again. A few of them started forward. She instinctively backed up a few steps.

"Everyone's aboard, Captain!" came Sergeant Moore's voice over her headset. "What should we do?"

Yeah, good question. Could she somehow get back to the shuttle? But just then the whine of the turbines became much louder as the pilot applied power to get ready for take-off. This seemed to recapture the animals' attention because they all turned again and headed for the shuttle.

"Take off!" she cried.

"But what about you?"

"I'll try to slip away. Circle as long as you can and maybe you can pick me up."

"But…."

"Do it! They'll be on you in twenty seconds!"

"Roger, lifting off." The whine became louder yet and Kim saw the shuttle rise up in a cloud of dust. It rose to about five hundred meters and then headed in her direction.

Unfortunately, so did the animals.

"Oh crap."

She stood frozen as the enormous beasts thundered toward her. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. She just stared as several hundred tons of death approached. The shuttle screamed overhead, but she couldn't take her eyes off the beasts. The ground was actually shaking under her.

But a hundred meters away, the herd seemed to part and they passed on either side of her within spitting distance. They moved on past and then milled around in confusion. She forced herself to move and trotted away from them. They didn't seem to see her. When she was about five hundred meters away the shuttle swung back around and came in low. "Get ready, Captain!" called Moore.

The animals charged toward her again.

"No good!" cried Kim. "Veer off!" The shuttle passed over her and banked away. Fifteen seconds later the animals passed around her again, one actually brushed against her and she nearly fell.

Three more times they tried it, but each time the beasts charged. There just wasn't time for the shuttle to land, take her aboard, and get aloft again before the animals could interfere.

"Captain Kim, this is Xiao," came the voice of the shuttle's pilot. "I'm reaching critical fuel levels. I'm going to have to leave in about three minutes if I'm going to make it back to the station."

Kim sighed. "Understood. Doesn't look like they are going to cooperate. You may as well save your reserve and get out of here."

"But Captain!" cried Moore. "What are you going to do?"

"They could have killed me any time they wanted to, Sergeant. We'll just have to hope that it was the shuttle they objected to. I'll try to stay in this area. You refuel and keep a watch on the site. If the critters move off, come back and try to pick me up. Get going. That's an order."

Moore grumbled a reply that she couldn't quite catch, but the shuttle made one last pass and then its main engines kicked in and it quickly climbed out of sight toward orbit. The beasts seemed to watch it go, but Kim was watching them instead.

[Scene Break]

Parker Selfridge, despite his dislike for zero-G, was waiting at the hanger airlock when the shuttle docked. "What happened?" he demanded of the ranking security man, a sergeant with the name "Moore" printed on his tunic.

The man shrugged. "Like we told you over the radio: the critters attacked and we had no choice but to get out."

"If Captain Kim hadn't led them off none of us would have made it," said the shuttle pilot.

"So you just abandoned her?" snapped Lieutenant Asoka as he floated into the compartment. He was clearly upset.

"No choice, sir! The beasts charged every time we tried to land and we were running out of fuel. Captain Kim ordered us to return to the station!"

Selfridge clenched his fist. There was no way this was an accident. As much as he'd love to think it was, it was not. _Eywa again!_ Apparently the situation was exactly what Captain Kim had told him weeks earlier: they weren't just fighting the Na'vi, they were fighting every living thing on the planet. A battle they simply couldn't win with the resources at hand. He turned to Asoka. "Is there any sign of the Captain?"

"No, sir," he answered grimly. "Her communicator is too weak to broadcast, although she can probably receive our signals. We lost her IR signature among all the animals and we haven't seen anything that might be her since then. The herd has moved off to the east. So, either she is moving with them for some reason, or… or…"

"Or they killed her," said Selfridge.

[Scene Break]

Harriet Kim trudged along beside her captors and wished she could have a beer. It was the second day since her 'capture' and her canteen was nearly empty. Her exo-pack trapped and recycled nearly all the moisture in her breath so she wasn't dehydrating as quickly as she would otherwise in the heat, but she was still losing water through her sweat. If she couldn't get more she didn't know how much longer she could keep going.

"So _where_ are you taking me?" she asked in exasperation. She'd asked the question a dozen times and she got no more answer now than she had any of the other times. The beasts just kept shuffling along with her in the middle of their herd. She had no doubt that they were taking her_ somewhere_. Their actions had been far too deliberate to just be some random instinctual behavior. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

Once the last sight and sound of the shuttle had faded away the animals had closed in around her and for a few terrifying moments she thought they were going to trample her. But one of the largest ones had approached very slowly and then gently given her a nudge with its snout. Of course, a 'gentle' nudge from a creature that size had nearly sent her sprawling. But the message was clear: get moving. And with the herd hemming her in there was no doubt what direction they wanted her to go: nearly due east. So, she had marched for the rest of that day and then spent the night on the ground surrounded by the animals fervently hoping they didn't walk in their sleep. Even exhausted as she was, she had not fallen asleep for a long time. For a while she had considered trying to slip away in the dark, but several very chilling howls in the distance persuaded her otherwise.

In the morning the march had resumed. It was now late afternoon and she guessed they were close to fifty kilometers from the landing site. She knew there was a river valley another sixty or seventy kilometers ahead, but without water she was never going to make it.

"Captain Kim, do you read. Please respond." Her headset came to life and she nearly tore it off and chucked it away.

"Yes I read you, damn it! And no, you can't hear me back!" It was an hourly ritual. They were signaling her from orbit and while she could receive, her own transmitter was set far too weak to reply. All it would take was the right equipment to restore her transmitter to full power, but she didn't have the right equipment. She didn't know why they were even doing this. Even if they could communicate with her, they still couldn't hope to pick her up. Yesterday's encounter showed that the animals couldn't be scared away just by the sight or sound of the shuttle and they didn't have any heavy weapons that could kill them. Of course they'd only had the small auxiliary shuttle. She wasn't sure how the beasts would respond to one of the big ones…

After a few minutes her com went dead again. They probably just wanted to know if she was still alive. Nice of them…

By the time they stopped for the night she had emptied her canteen. She munched down the last of her emergency rations with a parched mouth and took a pain pill from her small medkit. There were also several very potent pep-pills in the kit. They could keep her going for another day even without water, but when they wore off she'd be finished. She'd have to decide what to do about them in the morning. This time she had no trouble falling asleep: she no longer cared if she got stepped on.

In the morning one of the beasts had to nudge her several times before she got up and now she had bruised ribs along with all her other aches and pains. "Hey, how about a lift?" she asked suddenly. She tentatively moved toward one of the smaller animals but it sidled away and she abandoned the idea. "Selfish,' she muttered. "You wouldn't even feel my weight, lard-ass!" The fatigue was making her punchy. He legs were getting rubbery and she doubted she'd even make it to noon. She started rummaging for the pep pills…

A squawk from above snapped her out of her lethargy. A pair of banshees wheeled overhead and she could see that they had riders. Na'vi! She came to a stop and wasn't even surprised when her escort did as well. The banshees dropped lower and she gave them a wave. This far from Hell's Gate would they even know what she was? Maybe they would just put an arrow through her and be done with it. She was beyond caring. But no arrows pierced her and after several passes the banshees gained altitude and flew off to the east. After a few moments the animals started moving again and, perforce, so did she.

For some reason the encounter got her hopes up. If nothing else, it was a change from the dreary, painful routine. But an hour went by and nothing else happened. She was developing a nasty blister on her right foot and she was limping. She was reaching for the pep pills again when her escort began snorting and bellowing. She stopped and looked and saw a dozen banshees approaching from the east. Her captors made more noise and then suddenly turned and trotted back the way they had come, leaving her standing there.

"What? No good-bye kiss?" she called after them. "Bastards." She slumped down to the ground and closed her eyes. She only opened them again when she heard the banshees landing nearby. Tall blue figures approached her from all sides. Some had bows drawn. One of them slowly walked over to her. She leaned back and back in order to look up into the Na'vi's face. He towered over her. "Hi," she said. "Going my way?"

The native said something, but she had no idea what. She'd never learned any of the language. He gestured toward the banshees and talked some more. "You want me to go with you? Fine, but I'm not walking!" More words and more gestures and there was no doubt that he wanted her to go over to the banshees. "All right, all right, give me a minute." She tried to stand up, but fell back to the ground. She looked up in surprise when a large blue hand gripped her arm and gently helped her up. "Thank you," she said as she hobbled toward the banshees. The creatures should have terrified her, but she could only manage a mild state of alarm. She was led to one of them which already had a rider—a woman—mounted. Did they expect her to climb up there with her? More debate seemed to follow as she stood there. Suddenly, two strong hands grasped her around her waist and she was lifted up like a child and plunked onto the banshee ahead of the rider. She looked around awkwardly for something to hang on to, but then the rider's arm went around her waist and pulled her in tight. With a lurch they were suddenly airborne, the banshee's wings cutting the air. In moments the whole band was aloft and heading east.

At first it was frightening but when it became apparent that the Na'vi wasn't going to let her fall, she began to relax and even enjoy the ride. The wind rushing over her was pleasantly cool and the banshees surprisingly graceful. Their translucent wingtips caught the afternoon sun and broke it into rainbow sparkles. As they went higher, she caught a glimpse of a long band of green in the distance. But she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and she eventually dozed.

She woke up as they came in to land. A stretch of green forest lay below them and off to one side was a broad river, glittering in the last light of sunset. The trees didn't seem nearly as large as the huge one the Omaticaya had once inhabited. But as she got closer she saw that a half-dozen of these smaller trees seemed to be linked together with rope bridges or intertwined branches and vines. Numerous platforms were perched throughout. Fires burned on some of them and many blue figures moved about. A small crowd met them as the banshees came to roost in the upper branches.

Two of them, a male and a female, were dressed much more elaborately than the others. Kim guessed they were probably the clan leader and his mate who, if these Na'vi were like the ones near Hell's Gate, was some sort of priestess. They came up to her as she was let down from the banshee. She was barely able to stand, but she decided to give them a salute. "Harriet Kim, Captain, RDA security forces. Serial number R4367156-A."

They looked at her in surprise and then began talking to each other, the woman gesturing at Kim emphatically. It went on for several minutes and then suddenly stopped. Kim's eyes blinked open and she realized that she was now sprawled on the rough bark of the large branch she had been standing on a moment before. There were urgent Na'vi voices and then strong hands gently picked her up and she was carried away.

Shortly, she was lying on a pile of soft cloth and Na'vi were clustered around her with bowls of fruit and nuts and… "Water!" she croaked. Oh yes, a bowl of water! She fumbled out the drinking straw attachment for her breathing mask and fitted it in place. She reached out for the bowl and set it in her lap, dipped the end of the straw into it and sucked on the end inside her mask. Oh, wonderful. Nothing ever tasted so good. She had no idea how clean the water was, but she didn't care. At least no native disease organisms would bother her.

"Thank you, thank you," she said when she had drunk her fill. She smiled at the Na'vi and nodded her head. They looked at her with great curiosity and a few smiled back. They now offered her the food and that was a problem. The survival training she had received taught her that some Pandoran foods were safe for a human to eat, but others were not. A few of the fungus-type growths that the Na'vi favored were deadly poison. Most of the meats, while not actually toxic, would probably make her sick as would many of the roots and tubers. Fruits and nuts were safest, but there were exceptions to them, too. And, of course, her training was focused on the stuff that grew near Hell's Gate. She was half a world away and who knew what the local fruits and nuts would do to her? Still, she had to eat. Best to try just one item at a time to test them out. She reached for a rather tasty-looking yellow fruit.

It proved to have a tough skin and she was forced to use her knife to open it up and the Na'vi commented on the gleaming metal blade, but they made no attempt to take it away from her. She still had her pistol for that matter. The inside of the fruit was full of seeds and it was a messy job to extract the pulp and slip it under her mask and into her mouth. It didn't taste half bad and there were no immediate problems from her stomach. She had to open three of them to get enough to satisfy her hunger and she was a sticky mess by the time she was done.

An exhausted sticky mess. She thanked the Na'vi again and used sign language to tell them she needed to sleep. They seemed to understand and backed off. She quickly fell asleep and did not wake up until morning.

[Scene Break]

"Sorry, sir, there was no sign of the Captain," said Sergeant Moore. "We searched the area for as long as we could. We found the assault rifle she took from me, but there was nothing else. No body or trace of equipment. I don't think those things killed her."

Selfridge nodded and Lieutenant Asoka dismissed the man. Asoka was now the ranking security officer. They were down to lieutenants now… He looked at his other department heads. "Comments?"

"I think we're screwed, Parker," said Ronnie Holmes. "The word about us seems to have spread planet-wide and we are going to be attacked no matter where we land. Even the search party for Captain Kim was driven off in just a few hours. I don't see how we can possible build a new base and start mining under these circumstances."

"There aren't _any_ locations without significant wildlife?"

"Oh, there are any number of small islands that might be relatively safe," said geologist George Levall. "Although God knows what might come crawling up out of the oceans. But small islands aren't likely to have any significant unobtainium deposits, Chief. And we aren't going to find anywhere that is completely devoid of life. If even birds and bugs and small animals can give the alarm…" he shrugged.

"You really believe that they are all linked together?"

"Don't you? Everything we've seen points to that. I can't think of any other explanation."

Selfridge grimaced. Unfortunately, he _did_ believe it. "Why the hell did this start happening _now_?" he asked in exasperation. "I mean humans have been on Pandora for over thirty years!"

"I guess we just hadn't pissed them off enough before," said Holmes. Selfridge glared at him and then at everyone else. Yeah, that's right, the blame would inevitably focus on the people behind the attack on the Omaticaya home tree and the decision to open a new mine site. On him, in other words. Not that either decision had originated with him! But with Quaritch dead and the people who had ordered the second mine back on Earth and way too far up the chain of command to blame, Parker Selfridge was the obvious target. Yes, Ronnie was right: he was screwed. But he wasn't quite ready to give up.

"Nevertheless, George, start taking a closer look at those small islands. Find me one with at least some unobtainium. As far away from everything else as you can find. Get me some options."

"Okay, Chief," said Levall shrugging.

"Uh, Parker," said Todd Adams, the station manager. "If you aren't going to be able to start sending people dirtside then you are going to have to start putting them into cryo up here. Venture Star has to depart in less than two weeks and we need to cram every body we can into it. Even then we will be way over capacity. We need to set up those spare cryo capsules and put them to use."

Selfridge nodded. Yeah, that was the other boulder hanging over his head: once they started freezing his work crews it was over. People weren't like leftovers, you couldn't keep defrosting them and popping them back into the freezer. The process did small but measurable damage to the body and the health regulations were very specific: one session in cryo to get here and one to get home again. "All right," he sighed. "Get a schedule drawn up and let's hope we don't have to use it. In the meantime, if anyone can come up with _any_ new ideas, please let me know. Thank you." He started to get up…

"Mister Selfridge!" Lieutenant Asoka was already on his feet.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"What about Captain Kim?"

[Scene Break]

Harriet Kim looked at the pool of water and then at the small crowd of Na'vi who were watching her. She was filthy and sticky and God knew what she must smell like. She looked at the pool and then back at the natives. What the hell, _they_ were practically naked already…

Slowly and stiffly she began to strip off her clothes. She winced as she eased off her right boot. The blister had torn open and bled. She had to peel off her blood-soaked sock and the wound started bleeding again. Tunic, shirt, trousers, underwear, they all came off and she tossed them into the pool and then went in herself. The only thing she was wearing was the exo-pack. The water was warm and soothing and she scrubbed herself with some of the sand from the bottom of the pool. She rinsed out her clothes as well as she could and then finally put them and herself on a large rock to dry.

The crowd of Na'vi had grown quite a bit larger.

"Come see the nekkid alien, only five dollars," she said. "I could make a fortune if any of you had any money." As a soldier, she was used to communal shower rooms, so she only felt a little self-conscious. She smiled and waved at the crowd. They were pointing and making comments among themselves. A few were clearly trying to get a closer look without seeming too obvious. Kim obliged them by standing up and slowly turning around. The low babble of voices rose while her back was turned. What was wrong with her backside…? Ah, of course: no tail. She looked around and then grabbed a tall stalk of some sort of grass. She held it at the base of her spine and waved it around and then looked over her shoulder and laughed. After a moment of surprise, all the Na'vi laughed back. _Sense of humor, a universal constant?_ For some reason the laughter made the natives much less menacing. She relaxed and slowly began to dress herself. There was some antiseptic ointment in her medkit and she smeared a little of it on her blister and put on a bandage. It was getting hot and the river valley was much more humid than the prairie had been. She didn't bother putting on her tunic, but stuffed it in her belt instead.

She sat back down on the rock and considered her situation. The natives seemed friendly and she had food and water. But unless she could contact her base, she was dead. Her exo-pack was rated for two weeks use and she'd already used up four days. Theoretically, the pack's filters could be washed out and would last indefinitely. But that was only if the cleaning took place under ideal conditions: plenty of distilled water and a standard atmosphere. Trying to do it in the field would be far less effective. Or at least that was what the manuals said. Oh, she could probably stretch it out for a month, five weeks at the outside, but eventually, the filters would be clogged beyond cleaning and she would slowly choke to death. It wasn't a pleasant prospect.

She needed to get off Pandora. Could she make her 'hosts' understand? Would they even permit it? She had to remind herself that despite the kindness of the Na'vi, despite the pistol hanging on her belt, she was still a prisoner. She didn't have the slightest doubt that the big animals had deliberately captured her and that they had also deliberately delivered her to the Na'vi. But why? "Okay, Eywa, you've got me," she said aloud. "What are you going to do with me? Better be quick, I won't last long."

The watching Na'vi stirred and she realized it was probably her use of their deity's name that had caught their attention. Several of them trotted off toward their tree house. Great, had she committed some blasphemy? Maybe they'd burn her at the stake. At least she wouldn't have to worry about the damn filters anymore.

After ten or fifteen minutes she saw the clan leader and his priestess/mate approaching. She stood up on her rock which put her nearly eye-to-eye with them. They began talking but Kim couldn't understand a word. She just shrugged or held out her hands helplessly when they paused. All three of them were getting frustrated. Finally, she took the lead and tried to explain the problem that she faced with her exo-pack's inevitable failure. She pointed to the pack, pointed to her mask, and made choking and gagging noises while holding her throat and feigning death. Then she pointed to the sun and made a sweeping motion with her arm, hopefully giving them the idea of a passing day. She did it a few dozen more times and then made the choking and dying noises again. They watched her carefully but she couldn't tell if they understood. They talked some more, but it still meant nothing to her. So then she pointed up to the tops of the trees where the banshees roosted and make a flapping motion with her arms. Then she pointed west. The only hope she could think of was for them to take her back where she'd been captured and pray the orbital station was still watching the area. If they spotted her IR signature smack on the landing site maybe they would investigate.

This new bit of sign language seemed to get through. The pair made their own flapping motions and Kim nodded vigorously. Yes! Take me back! The clan leader started calling out orders and his people moved to obey. All right, now they were getting somewhere! She was escorted back to the tree and then up. But despite rest and food and water, she was still weak. She wasn't a quarter of the way up before she had to stop and rest. So they carried her the rest of the way. She was no bigger than a child to them.

In a gratifyingly short time she was sitting in front of a banshee rider (she thought it was the same one as before) and airborne. A half-dozen other banshees flew escort. They circled several times to gain altitude and then set off.

East.

"Uh, wait a second," she said. "We need to go that way." She pointed west. She looked at the rider, but she just shook her head and pointed east.

"West, dummy! We need to go west!"

But it was no use. They flew east.

[Scene Break]

Max Patel was puttering around the lab when the communications station signaled him. With only twenty-one humans left at Hell's Gate they didn't have the people to maintain a constant watch in the control station, so he'd rigged the computers to automatically forward any incoming messages to wherever he happened to be. He went over to the nearest station and was surprised to see that there was a message coming through on the security channel rather than the usual general channel. That was odd. In the first week after the evacuation, there had been a number of messages back and forth but always on the general channels. And this was the first message of any kind in over a month. Oh well, one way to find out what it was. He hit the button to open the channel.

Immediately a man's face appeared on the screen. Max thought he recognized him: "Lieutenant…?"

"Asoka," he replied. "I'm glad to see you Doctor, I was hoping to speak to you."

"What about?"

"Uh, this is kind of awkward, Doctor, but we've lost one of our people on the surface."

"Really?" said Max, his eyebrows arching upward. "And what exactly was your person doing on the surface—in direct violation of the evacuation agreement?"

"Uh, scouting, I'm afraid."

"For a new mine site? What other possible reason could there be?" Max wasn't the least bit happy about this and he said so.

"Look, Doctor," said Asoka, who appeared very uncomfortable, "I'll be honest with you. First, no one up here knows I'm talking to you—I hope. And yes, we were trying to sneak back down and renew mining operations. But this 'Eywa' the Na'vi have isn't going to let us, it seems."

"What? What do you mean?" Now Max was really interested.

"The animals, even the ones on the far side of the planet, are on alert for us. Every time we tried to land, they would show up and drive us off. The last time one of our people got left behind. We have reason to believe she's still alive and probably in the hands of the Na'vi. She can't last down there for very long. Can you help us get her back?"

"Her? It's a woman?" Max liked to think himself free of any sexual chauvinism, but the idea of a woman in peril struck through to something deep inside him.

"Yes. it's Captain Kim."

"Damn." Max's feelings about Harriet Kim were decidedly mixed. She'd threatened to execute him at the height of the crisis if he didn't cooperate, but on the other hand, she'd seized control back from Lomax and agreed to the evacuation, saving thousands of human and Na'vi lives. She seemed like a decent person. "And where do you think she is?"

"Our landing site was here," said Asoka. His image on the screen was replaced by a map of Pandora. It zoomed in on a small island almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet from Hell's Gate. "A group of big grazing animals, similar to hammerheads, seem to have herded her off to the east and we spotted them rendezvousing with a batch of banshees—we have to assume Na'vi were riding them—and then that group continued east to a village complex. There was no trace of her along the route so we hope that she's in that village."

"And you can't contact her?"

Asoka reappeared on the screen and he was shaking his head. "We were very worried about you people intercepting our communications. Her communicator was set at extreme low power and relayed through the auxiliary shuttle. There's no way she can signal us on her own. We sent down a drone with a communications link to see if we could make contact, but there was no answer. She might have lost her communicator or had it taken, or maybe she isn't even at this village anymore. I wanted to send the shuttle down for a low pass on the village, but Mister Selfridge won't permit it." The anger in his voice at that last part was very plain. Clearly, Asoka was worried on a personal level about Kim and was willing to disobey orders to try and save her.

"When did this all happen?" asked Max.

"Five days ago. She had very limited supplies and no spare filters for her exo-pack. Can you help us find her?"

"I don't know," said Max. "That island must be about ten thousand kilometers away…"

"Eleven."

"…and none of the helicopters we have here have even half that range even if we crammed it with spare fuel. A banshee would take… I don't know… a month or more to fly a distance like that. Of course, if you wanted to bring your shuttle down here and load a few of us on board and fly over to the village. Well, that's a different matter."

Asoka grimaced. "I can't image Selfridge permitting it. He's still hoping for some way to pull off a new mine and there's no way he'll tip his hand while there's a chance of that. He's already written her off," he added bitterly.

"But you've already tipped his hand, Lieutenant."

"True, but I don't know how he'd react if I told him. He might still refuse to cooperate just out of spite. I just… I just wanted to see if you could help first. I mean, it's pretty clear that this 'planetary network' you scientists have been talking about can spread information around quickly. Can you use it to find Captain Kim?"

Max blinked in surprise. He hadn't even thought of such a possibility. He'd been nagging Jake to allow him to runs some tests in the wake of his incredible transference to his avatar, but he'd had no time to even consider the bigger picture of Eywa and the theoretical network. "I… I guess I can ask the Na'vi."

"That's all I'm asking," said Asoka. "Thank you, Doctor."

[Scene Break]

Norm Spellman frowned and watched Jake frown in turn. Just about everyone was frowning. The only one who wasn't was Max Patel and his expression was of nervousness, no doubt caused by all the frowning blue figures towering around him. Max had come out to the new Omaticaya home tree with some disturbing news.

"They have broken their word," said Neytiri angrily. "They have no honor."

"I never thought that Selfridge would give up on this," said Jake. He slammed his fist into his hand.

"But at least it seems that Eywa is manning the ramparts for us, Jake," said Norm. "Sounds like she's got the situation in hand."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't change the fact that Selfridge violated the agreement we made when we allowed them to evacuate."

Norm shrugged. "Not much we can do about it with them in orbit and us down here." Lanuma squeezed his hand gently and looked at him with a puzzled expression. She couldn't understand English and he spent several minutes explaining what was going on.

She shook her head. "All this for rocks."

"Jake," said Max. "I know you're pissed about this, you've got a right to be. But what about Captain Kim?"

Jake sighed. "Yeah, she really wasn't a bad sort. I imagine she just got caught up in this 'following orders' business. But I'm not sure what we can do for her. I mean the distances involved are enormous. Any message—or resupply for her exo-pack—would take a month or more to get to that island by ikran."

"Jakesully"

Everyone turned as Mo'at spoke. The clan Tsahik had said nothing so far. "Yes?" said Jake.

"Do you have a… a _picture_ of this Captainkim?" Jake's eyebrows shot up and he looked at Max.

"Uh, yeah, I can call up her personnel files on my 'pad," he said. He unfolded the device and fumbled with it for a moment. A picture appeared on the screen showing the severe-looking woman with close-cropped blond hair that Norm remembered. Max handed the device to Mo'at who studied it and then handed it back.

"Yes. She is the one."

"What?" demanded Jake. "What do you mean?" Norm was puzzled, too. He didn't think Mo'at had ever met Kim.

"This Skyperson, this Captainkim, has filled my dreams for many nights," replied the Tsahik. "Always she is flying. Flying by ikran across wide seas. She is coming, Jakesully. Eywa is sending her to us."

[Scene Break]

Harriet Kim clung to the banshee and wondered how the hell she was going to get down without killing herself. The Na'vi who inhabited this island lived in pueblo-like cliff dwellings on the rocky coast and they 'parked' their banshees on the nearly vertical rock face above the village. Her banshee rider had landed his mount and then scampered down the cliff like a squirrel, leaving her hanging there. She looked over to where one of her escort's riders was still tending his own beast. "Hey! Rutxe!" she cried and waved. The native looked puzzled for a moment and then smiled. He clambered over to her, his long fingers and toes easily finding holds in the rock. He looked at her for a moment and then shrugged. He reached out and slung her over his shoulder like a duffle bag and then quickly climbed down to where the others were standing on a platform and talking with the locals.

Kim was starting to pick up some of the language and it sounded like her savior said to the one who had left her hanging something like: 'Hey, Joe, you forgot something!' The others all laughed, but the one looked nonplussed. "Irayo" Kim said to the one who'd carried her when he deposited her on the platform. He nodded to her and touched his forehead. Her escort now gestured at her and the locals gathered round staring and talking excitedly.

It was now twelve days since she had begun this journey and this had become a daily routine. Get up before first light, fly all day and then spend the night at a new village. She would be gawked at, fed, allowed to rest and then the next day it was off again, usually with a new escort. It was a relay race and she was the baton.

But she was losing the race.

She looked at the read-out on her exo-pack. It was reading 60% efficiency and that wasn't good. Two days earlier she had dared to clean the filters for the first time. It had been reading 50% then and after the cleaning it had gone back up to 80%, but had dropped 20% in just two days. By her rough estimate, she'd been carried close to 5,000 kilometers so far, but it had not been in a straight line as they'd hopped from island to island , and even if it had been straight, that was less than half of the way to Hell's Gate—assuming that was where they were going. Kim hoped that was where they were taking her. The direction appeared to be right and there was a certain amount of sense in it. And if it was some other destination then she was as good as dead anyway.

But even if her guess was right, she was probably still dead. They were maybe a third of the way there and she doubted her exo-pack was going to last another three weeks. Oh well, it had been a hell of trip. Almost worth dying for, she supposed. Pandora was a huge world and although she had been here for four years, she'd seen little but the area around Hell's Gate and even then she'd considered the surrounding forest to be enemy territory. Dangerous, something to be avoided if possible and passed through quickly if it was not. It had never been something to look at—or admire.

For the last twelve days she'd had nothing to do except look—and admire. Even though much of each day's flight was over open sea, she'd seen dozens of islands, big and small, and each one had its own beauty. She'd seen dazzling white beaches and majestic cliffs, sparkling waterfalls and turquoise lagoons. Mighty trees and fields of flowers, many of them in colors she didn't have words for. Even the sea itself was beautiful: shifting constantly and filled with things swimming just beneath the surface, or sometimes leaping above it. And at night! Everything glowed! The floodlights around Hell's Gate had blotted all that out. But away from artificial lights this world made its own. Despite her fatigue from flying all day, she tried to walk around a little bit after sunset at each stop and just take it all in. Kim had come from a hive-like city where the only plants were in environments as tightly controlled as a space station. This was… this was different. It stirred something deep inside her.

_Or maybe it's just oxygen deprivation clouding my brain…_

More Na'vi were now arriving on the platform and she had no trouble spotting the clan leader and the priestess, the _Tsahik_. For some reason it was always the Tsahik who took the greatest interest in her. They welcomed her and she was able to thank them in their own language. Dinner followed and Kim was regretful that she had to refuse most of the food offered her. She had experimented at first but one disastrous incident after a pre-flight breakfast had left her tunic so covered with vomit that she'd just thrown it away. She restricted herself to the few items she knew were safe.

After dinner she begged for a tour of the village and her hosts were obviously happy to oblige. The cliff village wasn't the botanical wonder that most of them had been, although there was still a lot growing on the rocks, but it had its own charm. The people were friendly and curious as they all had been. But they didn't seem surprised to see her. She noticed this more and more as the days passed. Somehow they had know she was coming, despite the fact that her escort was moving as fast as possible and ought to have flown as quickly as any messenger.

During the tour, one Na'vi child, who was about as tall as Kim, offered her a gift. It was a beautifully crafted necklace of beads and woven cord and feathers such as many Na'vi women wore. She already had several bracelets from earlier stops. Kim thanked the girl and then looked down at her dirty, torn and stinking t-shirt. She smiled and then peeled it and her bra off and dropped them to the ground. She proudly fitted the necklace around her, arranging it in the proper fashion to give some tiny bit of modesty. The girl seemed delighted and they both laughed. Instinctively she held out her arms and after only a moment the girl gave her a hug. "Irayo, irayo, tsmuke."

Day followed day and the kilometers sped past. But not fast enough. Despite a second cleaning and then a third, her exo-pack was down to 30% efficiency and it was getting harder to breath normally. If she just sat very still (which, fortunately it was easy to do on the long flights) she was okay, but once on the ground, even modest activity left her gasping. _Not much longer now._

On the twenty-seventh day since her capture (or was it the twenty-eight?) even sitting quietly was becoming difficult. She just dozed on the back of the banshee and the rider had to hold her to keep her from falling off. Every so often she would wake up coughing and she had to force herself to not tear off her mask. The exo-pack's reading was hovering around 15%. She doubted she'd survive the coming night. But it had been interesting. She didn't have any real regrets, except she'd like to have seen more…

Some time later she woke up to find herself lying on a platform with many Na'vi around. They seemed very excited and for once she didn't seem to be the focus of it. She heard an oddly familiar noise in the distance, but it was too much effort to try and remember what it was. She closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

[Scene Break]

Norm Spellman followed Jake and Neytiri up the path into the core of the tree the locals used as their home. It wasn't nearly as large as the trees he was used to back near Hell's Gate, but it seemed to support a good population. Most of that population was clustered around them now. The roar of the helicopter had attracted all of them and they were following them up into the tree. They hadn't liked the helicopter at all, but seeing Na'vi emerge from it had calmed most of their fears. And somehow they knew that they were coming, although Norm told himself that he really shouldn't be surprised at that.

Apparently Eywa had her own ways to spread news.

Once Mo'at had convinced Jake that her dreams really had come from Eywa, he had acted quickly to put this rescue operation into effect. One of the Sampson utility helicopters had been stripped of every kilogram of unnecessary weight and then filled with extra fuel canisters to extend its range to the maximum possible. Fortunately, one of the humans who had remained at Hell's Gate was qualified to pilot it and off they had went. A Sampson's cruising speed was about three times that of an ikran and three days of flying had put them almost 5,000 kilometers west of Hell's Gate. Each night they had stopped at a Na'vi village among much commotion. But Neytiri had talked with the local Tsahik and found that each of them had been having the same dreams as Mo'at: A special delivery from Eywa was coming. They had no trouble accepting that Jake—the Toruk Macto no less!—was on his way to meet it. Zeroing in on Kim's exact route had been tricky, but they knew they were getting close and this last day had seen them stop at four different villages to get a 'fix' from the Tsahik. It almost seemed like Ewya was guiding them…

"There she is!" cried Jake. "Norm, get the medkit ready!" The crowd of Na'vi parted and indeed, there was Harriet Kim, lying on a pallet. She was naked to the waist except for a Na'vi necklace and she looked very pale except for sunburn on her shoulders. Jake knelt down beside her and quickly swapped out her old exo-pack for a new one. Norm had the medkit open and injected Kim with a stimulant and then pulled out the scanner and started taking readings.

"Readings are weak," he reported, "but getting stronger now. I think we got here in time."

"Just in time," said Jake.

After a few minutes Kim's eyelids fluttered open and she looked around in confusion. "What…?" she mumbled.

"Good evening, Captain," said Jake. "I'm afraid your prayers haven't been answered."

"What…?" she said again.

"The last time we saw each other you prayed we wouldn't meet again. Sorry." He smiled.

"Sully," she said, her eyes focusing on him. "I guess I can live with it. Thanks."

[Scene Break]

Harriet Kim walked into the very familiar confines of the Hell's Gate control center. Her hand kept coming up to her face feeling for the missing mask of an exo-pack. It felt very strange not wearing one after so many weeks of never daring to take it off. It was also kind of strange seeing three Na'vi in the control room. Sully, Spellman, and Neytiri were all there along with Max Patel and several others of the expatriate humans. The Na'vi could survive in a human atmosphere for some time with no ill-effects so they wore no breathing masks. But they were all stooped over: the ceiling wasn't quite tall enough for the natives.

Patel was at the communications terminal and after a few moments a very familiar face came on the screen. Lieutenant Asoka spotter her immediately. "Harri!' he cried gladly.

"Hi, Suki,' she replied with a smile. "Good to see you. I understand I have you to thank for my timely rescue."

"I just made the request." He looked out of the screen at the others. "Thank you. Thanks a lot."

"Glad to be of service, Lieutenant," said Sully. "But now we have other matters to discuss. These new attempts to re-establish a mine on Pandora are unacceptable. We demand that you stop immediately."

"They have stopped, Mr. Sully," replied Asoka. "Selfridge has finally given up. Most of the workers are being put into cryo, waiting for the next ship to arrive. That last message you sent us did the trick."

Everyone looked around in confusion.

"What… message?" asked Sully.

Now Asoka looked confused. "The message from those banshees…"

"What?"

"Uh, we actually got it on camera," said Asoka. "Here, I can show you. We had found a tiny island about a thousand klicks west of where you were captured, Harri. We scouted it for a few days and it seemed deserted but then on the fourth day this happened. Look:" Asoka blinked off the screen and a new image filled it. The view jerked around like it came from a hand-held camera and showed a rocky landscape. A few tents were visible and the auxiliary shuttle behind them. Voices were shouting.

"Hostiles incoming! Get to the shuttle!" The image bounced around wildly until the shuttle filled most of the screen.

"Hey! Look at that!" said one voice.

"What are they doing?" said another.

The view spun around and then focused in on a swarm of dark shapes in the sky. Banshees, perhaps a hundred of them. But they were still very high, perhaps a thousand meters overhead. They didn't look like they were preparing to attack…

The group spread out into a long rectangular shape and then the banshees started aligning themselves into… into…

Letters.

"That looks like a 'C'… no, a 'G'!"

"G… O… H… O… M… _Go Home_!"

"Holy Shit! Sarge, what do we do?"

"I think we do like they say! Get aboard!"

The video ended and Asoka was back on the screen. There was dead silence in the control room for a moment and then Jake Sully bellowed out a laugh. "Grace!" Everyone looked at him. He gave a huge grin. "Who else?"

"You're right," said Spellman, laughing in turn. "Who else, indeed? She made it!"

"Eywa be praised," said Neytiri.

"Well, Lieutenant," said Sully, "you say that 'our' message has been received and understood? What happens next?"

"From what I've heard, Selfridge plans to recommend to the home office that the other moons and asteroids be mined for unobtainium. No one knows what they will decide, but most of us will be on our way home as soon as the next ship arrives. We'll be back on Earth before any of us find out. Harri, we still need to get you back up here. Selfridge probably won't object now to sending down the shuttle."

"He still doesn't know you've been talking to us?" asked Kim.

"I don't think so."

"He could make a lot of trouble for you, Suki."

"Let him! I don't give a damn anymore."

"Don't be hasty. Selfridge is going to be looking for anyone he can share the blame for this mess with. If he knows you've been in touch with the people down here he'll probably try to blame you for this latest failure."

"With you around to blame for evacuating Hell's Gate. Harri? He'll have other fish to fry. Watch out for your ass, I can watch my own."

"Yeah, that has certainly occurred to me. And I think I can solve both our problems."

"What do you mean?"

Kim turned to Sully. "Sir? I'd like to stay on Pandora if you'll have me."

"Harri! You can't be serious!" cried Asoka.

"Completely serious. It's the best option. If Selfridge thinks I'm dead and if he doesn't know you've been naughty, well, then I guess he'll just have to shoulder all that blame himself, won't he? And…" she faltered. "And I spent a month with the Na'vi, Mr. Sully. They kept me alive, showed me every kindness. And they showed me their world. A world more beautiful than I ever dreamed was possible. I would very much like to stay."

Sully hesitated and then looked to his mate. Neytiri shrugged and then smiled. "Surely, Eywa preserved her life for some reason. I have no objection."

Sully slowly nodded his head and then extended his enormous hand. "Welcome to Pandora, Captain."

She took it and shook. "Thank you, sir. Glad to be here."

[Scene Break]

Parker Selfridge took one last look at Pandora through the viewport and then turned and slowly pulled himself through the ship's corridors toward the compartment where his cryo capsule was waiting.

Failure, he was returning home in failure. He'd been sent here to open the new mine and triple unobtainum production. Not only had he failed to increase production, but all existing production had been halted, too. Mission most definitely _not_ accomplished! It wasn't his fault, but he was going to be blamed. Quaritch had started this disastrous war and Kim had surrendered the base. But they were both dead and the only one left to blame was Parker Selfridge.

He was finished with the RDA. Probably finished everywhere else, too. Oh, he wouldn't starve. Withholding his accumulated salary would be more trouble than it would be worth to the Corporation. But his career was over.

His old career… Hell, he could probably make quite a bit of money writing a book or selling the movie rights…

There were always options.

The End


End file.
